We've been quietly working behind the scenes on our much awaited Crypto <--> Gold store for quite some time nowThat's why we're VERY excited to announce the official Launch time! More details will soon follow. For now, take a look at these never seen before features:

Developer Updatejust
thought id update you all with some progress of the current main Dapp.
Will be lodging into Apple TestFlight Beta over the next few days,
should be quick and painless as i know the guidelines for publishing
apps and i'm using my work account.

In a blog post that I wrote a month ago (you may view it here), I briefly discussed the difference between Proof-of-Work (PoW) and Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mining algorithms. In summary:

PoW requires
miners or physical computers to process transactions in order to earn
coins. This can be inefficient since better computers are created and
optimized for mining which may lead to centralization, such as of
Bitcoin, by pool miners owning 51% or more of the entire mining
population.

PoS is
greener and requires less energy to confirm transactions. You just need
to lock up your coins to process transactions and earn rewards in form
of newly minted coins or transaction fees.

In this article, I would like to continue where I left off and delve more into how these algorithms apply in Giracoin.

You
may not be fully aware yet, but Giracoin is just one of the very few
cryptocurrencies which utilize a hybrid blockchain combining both the
high security of PoW and the simplicity of PoS. So how does it work and
how can we illustrate the “hybrid” characteristics of our blockchain?

First
of all, let’s define “blockchain” for those who are new to this
technology. Simply put, a blockchain is like a ledger containing all
transaction logs since the beginning of its existence, with the very
first block commonly referred to as the “genesis block” which Bitcoin
dubbed way back in 2009. The blockchain is an integral part of each
cryptocurrency and should be understood as a log which stores all of the
transactions performed with the currency, or in our case, with
Giracoin.

Now
let’s describe the “mining” process. The computing power required to
decrypt the hash algorithms, to verify new transaction blocks in the
blockchain, and the resulting new coins, is referred to as mining.
Mining is a distributed consensus system used to conﬁrm waiting
transactions and add them to the blockchain. This transaction
veriﬁcation, which previously only banks would perform, is carried out
for cryptocurrencies by a majority vote of users. The vote is taken
using a so-called Proof-of-Work (PoW) or Proof-of-Stake (PoS) procedure.

Now here's how Giracoin combined both algorithms to form a hybrid blockchain.

Giracoin
employs PoW in the process of mining your tokens and turn them into
coins using company-owned machines in order to avoid mining pool attacks
which is possible if a pool operator owns 51% of the entire mining
population. This closed Giracoin mining process is not only extremely
secure, but it also allows users without their own high-performance
computers to participate in the mining process.

In
the PoS scenario, you can still earn mining rewards by simply storing
your Giracoins in your GiraPay desktop wallet, which you can install on
any regular home computer, and not spend your coins for a certain period
of time. All you need to do is make sure your computer is always
connected to the internet. The higher your staked coins are and the
longer they are held, the better your success rate will be to earn
rewards.

The advantages of staking your coins for as long as possible

As
previously mentioned, one of the key advantages of keeping your coins
for a longer period of time in your desktop wallet is that you can
increase your inﬂuence in the system and accumulate more earnings in the
form of new issued coins and transaction fees. The more coins you keep
and the longer you stake them, the higher your influential factor will
become.

According
to our technical whitepaper, the amount of earnings your staked coins
can yield is more or less 3% per annum. However, certain penalties may
be imposed upon if you disconnect your wallet from the network, and to
reconnect may incur certain fees which will be deducted from your wallet
balance. So make you sure you keep your internet connection always on,
and your wallet always connected to the Giracoin network, to avoid such
penalties.

The
other major advantage of staking your coins in your desktop wallet
rather than trading them on exchanges, is that, it will help stabilize
the market price of Giracoin and maintain low volatility of our
cryptocurrency. As per the law of supply and demand, if the demand is
high, the price can go higher too. So if we keep the supply very low
when many users stake their coins rather than offer to sell them, the
demand will be high, which can cause the price to go up gradually.

On
the other hand, the more users offer to sell their coins, the lesser
the demand will be causing the price of Giracoin to go down.

So
staking is really a very effective method of maintaining high demand
for Giracoin and its price stability, while keeping low the volatility
of our coin which can help convince merchants and investors to consider
Giracoin as a safe digital asset if we eliminate potential exchange
losses due to price fluctuations.

Another
thing I liked about our staking process is the simplicity of
participation. Unlike other PoS-based cryptocurrencies that require you
to lock your coins for at least 30 days which will render your coin
unusable (like time deposit in a bank) during the said period, and
require a minimum amount of coins to participate which can cost a
participant huge amount of investment, ours is more flexible. Simply
transfer your coins at whatever amount to your desktop wallet for you to
begin staking. Then in cases when you need to spend your coins, you can
use them accordingly without incurring penalties. You may also add more
coins anytime to improve your chance of getting rewards.

And
since there is no need for you to setup and maintain powerful machines
to handle the actual work, you can therefore mine more coins, easier and
without spending more, in a PoS than in a PoW procedure.

GiraPay Desktop Wallet
is currently under beta testing and the final version (Build 2.0) will
be made available for download very soon. Once we launch the final
version to the public, expect the Giracoin price to rise again. So start
mining now before you lose more coins if you mine your tokens later.